Main Stage Speaker Guide

At a Glance

A main stage session is your chance to reach the whole NeuroDiversion audience at once. Unlike breakout sessions, tech rehearsal is mandatory — it's how we make sure your slides, sound, and lighting are all dialed in before you step on stage.

• Bring the vibe: be bold and interactive, and align with ND’s values — connection, creativity, inclusion. Steer clear of heavy self-promotion, gratuitous profanity, and evangelizing.
• Slides are due March 6, 2027 — export as 16:9 JPEGs (no animations) and send a download link to programming@neurodiversion.org.
• Tech rehearsal is Friday, March 26 at approximately 1:00 PM — attendance is mandatory, so please plan your travel to have you in Austin well before then.
• On-stage timing is strict: use the countdown timer (wrap up at yellow, stop at red), and build in a couple of 2–3 minute sections you could cut if needed.
• Media specs: audio as MP3, video at 1080p — clearly note where each should play in your presentation.

General Guidelines for Your Session

Take risks, and have fun

Your session will resonate most if you go beyond delivering information — be bold, creative, and interactive. Think about what will leave attendees inspired and energized, not just informed.

Some examples include:

And a few from NeuroDiversion itself:

• Cassandra Aarssen’s "You’re Not MESSY, Your Brain Organizes Differently" 2025 keynote shared the shame, triumph, and wisdom she gained from a life learning to love her unique brain.
• Jessica McCabe’s talk on building a world that works for all brains — with conviction you could feel.
• Dr. Sharon Saline’s talk — she broke into song to share how she’s learned to manage Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria.

You don’t need to orchestrate something elaborate — just embrace the spirit of creativity. If you feel stuck, email programming@neurodiversion.org and we’ll help you think it through.

Inform and inspire

NeuroDiversion’s core values are connection, creativity, and inclusion. Your session should open minds, challenge assumptions, and leave attendees inspired to act — share your perspective while encouraging others to grow, embrace their individuality, and pursue new possibilities. Be positive and affirming, while still challenging us to become more of who we are.

What to avoid

Preparing to Speak

Confidence monitor

At the front center of the stage is a large LED TV that serves as your confidence monitor. The left side shows your current slide (what the audience sees), and the right side previews your next slide, so you know what’s coming up. This setup helps you stay focused on your audience without needing to turn around to check the main screen.

Slide clicker

We use the D’San PerfectCue system for advancing slides. The handheld remote has two buttons — green to advance, red to go back — and works over radio frequency, so you don’t need to point it at anything. A backup remote is kept on hand.

Speaker timer

The D’San Limitimer is your countdown clock, located below the confidence monitors at the front of the stage.

• Green light: keep going — you have plenty of time.
• Yellow light: time to wrap up. This appears at 3 or 1 minutes remaining, depending on your total time.
• Red light: you’re over time — finish as quickly as possible.

The timer will blink at 0:00 and start counting up to show elapsed time, but that doesn’t mean extra time is available.

Staying on time

• It’s fine to end a few minutes early — not late.
• Identify a couple of 2–3 minute segments you can cut if you’re running short on time.
• Rehearse with a timer, including a wrap-up cue, so you know how you’ll finish on time.

Technical rehearsal

Your tech rehearsal is Friday, March 26 at approximately 1:00 PM at Fair Market. This is a mandatory, critical step to ensure a smooth experience for both you and the audience. During the rehearsal, we’ll focus on:

Note: the rehearsal isn’t a full run-through of your presentation — it’s designed to work out technical details and make sure you feel confident.

Be creative.

Think of ways to engage your audience beyond a traditional talk — we want everything about ND to be extra special.

Relax.

The tech rehearsal might feel chaotic at times, but that’s why we do it — to make the actual event seamless. It'll take a while since we have to work through every speaker’s session, so feel free to bring a book or your laptop for downtime.

Slides & Video Guidelines

The main screen is set up for a 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio at 1280×720. Our presentation system uses image-based slides for consistency and performance, so you’ll need to export your slides as individual JPEG files. Once ready, share them via a cloud service (Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.) using a shared download link, and send it to programming@neurodiversion.org by March 6, 2027.

Best practices

• Use high-quality images that fill the entire slide — avoid borders, which reduce visual impact.
• Favor dark backgrounds with light text. White backgrounds tend to glow harshly on stage.
• Skip animations, transitions, and builds — they don’t survive the image-based export. Use a separate slide per build instead.
• Simplify text and lists. Spread key points across multiple slides or visuals rather than one dense list — less text is more.
• Keep text big and placed in the center or top of the slide. You’ll be moving around the stage, so anything low or off to the side is easy to walk in front of.
• Submit audio in MP3 format and video at 1080p, and clearly indicate where each should be integrated into your presentation.

If you’d like a specific walk-on song, let us know — we’ll usually choose one for you unless asked otherwise. It should be high-energy with a short chorus clip, since a song that needs buildup won’t work well.

Programs to avoid

• Google Slides — often problematic for exporting slides as images
• Prezi — contact us ahead of time if you plan to use it, to confirm compatibility

Exporting your slides as images